


Five Times David Smiles at Joe

by myblueworld



Category: Football RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 20:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9256829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myblueworld/pseuds/myblueworld
Summary: David has that smile, a smile that makes Joe forget to breathe.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Dance to Start Everything](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6012909) by [myblueworld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myblueworld/pseuds/myblueworld). 



> 1\. Today is David's birthday so of course I have to write something about him.  
> 2\. Some sort of prequel for the "A Life to Live Together" series. Something that in my head, happened before "A Dance to Start Everything"

* * *

_**[1] When David Comes to City** _

 

Joleon waves at Joe as Joe walks towards the locker room.

“Hey, have you meet the new lad?”

Joe raises his eyebrows. “The new lad? You mean Silva?” He shakes his head. “Nope. I just got here. Is he here?”

Joleon nods. “Yeah. He’s in the changing room. Pablo is taking him around.” Joleon chuckles, and he shakes his head. “Man, poor little thing. He can’t seem to deal with the weather.”

“Huh?”

But Joleon already walks away from him. Joe shrugs and continues walking to the locker room.

As he walks in, he can see Vinnie, talking with his arms crossed over his chest with Pablo. There is someone next to Pablo. His back is facing Joe, but the thing that Joleon said suddenly makes sense to Joe.

It’s August, for God’s sake. And this guy is wearing a scarf. A thin one, but still. A fucking scarf. On August. Joe lets out a chuckle.

Vinnie’s head snaps a little, finding Joe. He raises his hand and waves at Joe, while Pablo turns around to look at Joe.

“Joe! Here, come and see the newest one in our squad!” Vinnie calls him.

Joe grins as he walks to the people. The new guy turns on his heels, and nods at Joe. There is a small, tentative polite smile on his lips. He is much shorter than Joe. That is not a fair comparison, to be honest. But even Pablo is slightly taller than him. And along with Vinnie standing close to him, he looks like a small hobbit.

“David, this is our goalkeeper.” Pablo gestures at Joe.

“Goal…keeper? _Portero_?” David looks at Pablo. He speaks in a low voice, sounding uncertain.

Joe nods and curls ups a smile. “Yeah… Yeah, that’s me.”

David turns his head again at Joe, and his smile gets a bit wider. “Ah…Okay.”

“So, David?” He offers his hand for a handshake, “I am Joe. Some people call me Harty, tho’”

“Joe,” David takes his hand. “Joe?” he says again, like he is trying to taste the name on his tongue.

“Yeah… yeah… just like that.” Joe grins to hear the heavy accent on David’s voice.

“Ahhh… Yes…” David locks his eyes on Joe. “Nice to meet you, Joe.”

“Good to have you here, too. Always nice to have a World Cup winner in the team, eh?”

David’s smile quickly lights up with a proud light in his eyes. The smile suddenly becomes a brilliant, open one. And for a split second, it’s like Joe’s heart skips a beat. For a split second, Joe forgets how to breathe.

Joe clears his throat. “So, _Dah-veed_? Is that how you say it?” He tries to imitate the way Pablo pronounce the name.

The smile doesn’t falter from David’s lips as he nods. “ _Si. Si._  Just like that,” he says, looking pleased with Joe’s attempt to say his name.

Joe stares at his eyes, and suddenly feels like his mind goes blank. But he wants to say something. He wants to keep on talking to this guy. To keep on making him smile.

“So, uh…” he says, scratching the back of his ear. “Still too cold for you here, huh? You need to work on how to deal with the weather here, yes?” Joe says and laughs a little nervously.

David holds his eyes at Joe. There is a strange look in his eyes. A very vague smile on his face.

“I just need…time, yes?” he pauses, like he wants to make sure that Joe is really listening. “More time…and I can… ah, do good with everything, yes?” The smile is barely there, but his eyes light up.

For a second, Joe forgets how to breathe again. A thought crosses his mind, that David meant something more than what he said.

*******

 

_**[2] When  Joe Talks About "The X Factor"**_

_**** _

There are other static bikes in the room, of course. And if Joe wants some company, the one next to Micah is vacant. But without really thinking, Joe strolls straight to the one next to David. The Spaniard looks like lost somewhere in his mind, but the sound of Joe’s footsteps coming towards him makes him lift his head.

“Joe! Hi!”

Something funny pulls in Joe’s chest as that easy, open smile curls up on David’s face.

“Hey, David.” Joe gets on the bike next to David. “What’s up?”

“I’m good.” David shrugs his shoulders, and continues cycling.

Joe bites his lower lip, trying to find something else to say that can keep a conversation going. He always has something to say, doesn’t he? Not only with the English lads, really. Even with Pablo and Carlos, it’s not that hard for him to say something to them.

Then what the heck is wrong with him, that his brain refuses to work when he wants to do something as easy as starting a conversation with David?

“So. Any plan for tonight?” he finally says.

David shrugs again. “No. Just watch TV.”

“Oh, The X Factor is on tonight.”

David turns his neck to look at Joe. “ _Qu_ _é_?”

“The X Factor? The show?”

David just stares at Joe with a clueless expression.

“What? You’ve never seen the show?”

David shakes his head. “No. What is this… X Factor?”

“God, David… You missed so much thing.” Joe shakes his head in disbelief.

One corner of David’s lips tug up. “You can tell me?” he says, brushing his hair from covering his eyes.

Joe grins. “Okay, let me educate you about a TV show.”

It’s almost embarrassing for Joe to realize how much he knows about the show, and how excited he sounds when he’s talking to David. But to have David next to him, a slightly amused smile as he listens, Joe just wants to keep on talking. He just wants to have David keep looking at him like that.

“And so, there was also this time when…”

“Are you really seriously, telling him about The X Factor?”

Joe can feel the rush of heat spreading on his face as he turns his head. Joleon is standing near their bikes. With a disbelief in his eyes, he looks half-amused, half-confused with what he’s heard.

“Ah… Joleon.” Even David’s voice sounds like smiling when he talks. “ _Si_. Joe is…teaching me about this…” he gestures vaguely with one hand. “This very important show, in England, yes?”

He glances at Joe as if looking for affirmation.

In front of them, Joleon shakes his head and chuckles. “David, don’t trust Joe too much about things that he tells you.”

“Fuck off, Lescott!” Joe hisses, his ears are burning up. He looks down and cycles faster.

“No, I like it,” David says. Joe’s head jolts up and he looks at David. David is smiling. Smiling like he is pleased about something.  “I like when Joe tells me things.”

His lips curl up higher as he looks straight at Joe.

Joe’s stomach does a backflip. He bows his head down as he continues cycling. He gives David a side glance. The Spaniard still has that small amused smile on his lips.

As Joe keeps on cycling, he decides that if it's something that makes David happy, if it's something that can make David smile, he won’t mind talking about The X Factor for hours.

It is a good show anyway, right?

 

*******

 

_**[3] When Joe Teaches David to Play Pinball** _

 

 

There is a pinball machine in the recreation room. Joe doesn’t know who puts it there. Not that it really matters, though. But the first thing that Joe sees when he walks in to the room, is David, standing in front of the pinball machine. With one hand on the surface on the glass, David studies the machine.

“Pretty awesome thing, huh? The pinball machine?” Joe says as he walks closer. He looks at the machine, and whistles. It’s quite a classic one, with colorful playfield under the glass cover.

“Joe!” David smiles at him and nods as he looks back at the machine. “This is a good machine, _si?_ ”

“Do you want me to show you how to play?”

David turns his neck to look at Joe. The corner of his lips tugs into a crooked smile. “Yes, Joe. Show me?” he says as he steps aside, giving more space to Joe in front of the machine.

“Okay, then…” Joe says. He takes the place offered and puts his hand on the plungers. “So, you use this sticks here to move the ball around…” he talks as he starts a new game.

Joe is good in playing with a pinball machine. Or at least decent. Very decent. But somehow, David’s presence close to him, it makes Joe’s heart beats a little too fast. Which is not good for the coordination of his brain and his hands.

“Shit!” Joe mutters under his breath when he just loses another ball for the third time. So much for making David impressed at him. Next to him, David giggles a little.

“But yeah, basically that’s how you do it.” Joe taps the glass surface. “You got the idea.”

David looks up at Joe. His smile is an innocent one, but there is something else in his eyes.

“Can I try?”

“Yeah, sure.” Joe steps back so David can take his place in front of the machine. “It may take a while, but you’ll get used to it.”

David nods, and holds the plunger. “I try, yes?”

A couple of minutes later, Joe is staring at David and the machine. At David who has beaten Joe’s score and still keeps on going.

“You can play this?”

“I played this. In Spain.” David answers, still with his eyes at the ball rolling in the playing field.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Joe shakes his head, embarrassed by how he must have looked like a fool, teaching David about something that he actually does better than Joe.

David takes his hands off the plungers, letting the ball falls. He turns to look at Joe, and there is a smile on his lips and in his eyes.

“Because I like it. I like when you tell me things,” David says, fixing his smiling eyes at Joe.

It’s like Joe’s heart skips a beat or two. But David already turns back to the machine, and starts a new game. The smile lingers as a small smirk on his lips.

Joe shakes his head, trying to collect himself together.

“You little weasel,” he says to David as he ruffles David’s hair and walks away. 

Joe holds himself from looking back over his shoulder. But he has a feeling that David still has that smirk on his lips.

David’s words resound again in his head. Well, if it makes David smile, maybe not being too awesome in pinball in front of David, it's actually not that bad.

*******

  _ **[4] When City wins The League**_

_**** _

David is laughing in his arms. His laughter is mixed with the sound coming from the bells on his hat and the chants, screaming, all the talking and laughing around them.

Joe is laughing too. Because this is the best feeling in the world and he feels like he is walking on clouds in a dream.

Joe puts David down, but his arm is still around David, holding him. His smile at Joe is so bright, so brilliant, like the sunshine itself is shining through the smile.

“We won, Joe! We won!” David says, tightening his fingers a little between Joe’s curls.

Joe feels like he can explode anytime. David’s face is so close with his own. His teeth between his smiling lips, and the freckles on his face are like splattered ink on a brown paper. Joe stares at the brown eyes, bright and warm, and Joe can’t think of anything that looks more beautiful than what he is looking in front of him.

Suddenly David puts his other hand around Joe’s neck, and pulls himself a little towards Joe. The next second, Joe feels David’s warm lips on his cheeks, so close, so close to his lips.

The lips linger on his skin for a while, but not long enough. Joe turns his head, trying to catch those lips with his own. But David already pulls away.

His hands still around Joe, his smile is still a bright one.

Joe thinks he can die now and he will still be smiling anyway.

*******

_**[5] When in Vegas** _

Vegas is like a city of dreams. And it feels like a dream too, seeing David like this. A wide smile plastered on his face, and his face is a blushing shade of red. Joe is not really sure whether it’s because of the excitement or the alcohol. Maybe both. Joe doesn’t really care. Because all that he care about now, all that he can think of and look at, is David.

“Joe! Joe!” David puts his hand on Joe’s arm and holds it. Joe turns his head to look at David, smiling to feel David’s skin against his.

“You’re happy, yes? You’re having fun, yes?”

“Of course,” Joe ruffles his hair. “Of course. I am having fun. You too, right David?”

David giggles again. His hand slides up to Joe’s shoulder, sending a thrill on Joe’s spine.

“I am, Joe. I am.”

He looks up at Joe. When he locks his eyes at Joe, Joe feels like David is not just looking at him. It’s like David is looking through him. Into him. Something swirls around, flutters in Joe’s stomach.

“I am happy with you, Joe.” David says. His eyes look sincere, and the smile is an open, honest one.

Joe starts to wonder whether David is still sober enough to really mean what he say.

“Me too, David. Me too.” Joe says, patting David’s cheek a little.

If it is even possible, David’s smile gets wider, his eyes get brighter. And before Joe knows it, David leans forward, and kisses Joe’s cheek.

David pulls himself away from Joe as sudden as him kissing Joe. He stares at Joe, who’s still stunned to do or say anything. There is another smile on David’s lips now. A more soft, gentle one. A smile that makes Joe’s world stops spinning for a while.

“Hey, David! Come here!” Pablo calling him makes David turns his head. He waves at Pablo, and stands up.

Joe pulls the hem of David’s shirt a little. No. He’s not ready yet. He still wants David here, sitting next to him. David turns his neck to look at Joe, a sly smirk on his lips. He leans down to level his lips with Joe’s ear.

“You want what, Joe?” he whispers, voice low but heavy with challenge. He raises up again.  David flashes that smirk again before turns around, and sneaking in between the couch and the table to go where Pablo is sitting.

Joe keeps his eyes on David. His hand flies to where David’s lips were a few seconds ago.

_You want what Joe?_

Joe wants David to smile at him. Joe wants to trace that smile with his finger, wants to feel that smile against his own lips.

Joe wants David and his smile and the look in his eyes and just…every single thing about him. He just wants David.

He takes his hand off his cheek, but his eyes don’t fall of David.

He simply cannot look away from David.

“Ask him to dance.” Samir, who is sitting next to Joe in the VIP booth nudges his shoulder.

 

 


End file.
